 A type of network connection between a virtual machine and the rest of the world. Under bridged networking, a virtual machine appears as an additional computer on the same physical Ethernet network as the host. See also Host-only networking.

 Any type of network connection between virtual machines and the host that does not use the default bridged, host-only or network address translation (NAT) networking configurations. For instance, different virtual machines can be connected to the host by separate networks or connected to each other and not to the host. Any network topology is possible.

Drag and drop

 With the drag and drop feature of VMware Workstation, you can move files easily between a Windows host and a Windows virtual machine. You can drag and drop individual files or entire directories.

Existing partition

 A partition on a physical disk in the host machine. See also Raw disk.

Full clone

 A complete copy of the original virtual machine plus all associated virtual disks.See also Linked clone.

 A display mode in which the virtual machine's display fills the entire screen, and the user has no access to the VMware Workstation user interface. The user cannot create, reconfigure or launch virtual machines. A system administrator performs these functionSee also Full screen mode.

Favorites list

 A list in the left panel of the main VMware Workstation screen that shows the names of virtual machines that a user has added to the list. The Favorites list makes it easy to launch a virtual machine or to connect to the virtual machine's configuration file in order to make changes in the virtual machine settings.

Go to Snapshot

 Go to a snapshot allows you to restore any snapshot of the active virtual machine.See also Revert to snapshot.

 A type of network connection between a virtual machine and the host. Under host-only networking, a virtual machine is connected to the host on a private network, which normally is not visible outside the host. Multiple virtual machines configured with host-only networking on the same host are on the same network. See also Bridged networking, Custom networking, and Network address translation (NAT).

Host machine

 The physical computer on which the VMware Workstation software is installed. It hosts the VMware Workstation virtual machines.

 A private virtual network that is available only to virtual machines within the same team.See also Virtual Network, and Teams

Legacy virtual machine

 A virtual machine created for use in Workstation 4.x, GSX Server 3.x or ESX Server 2.x. You can use and create legacy virtual machines within Workstation 5, but new Workstation 5 features are not usable. For example: clones, multiple snapshots, and teams are not compatible with a legacy virtual machine.

Linked clone

 A copy of the original virtual machine that shares the virtual disks with the original virtual machine in an ongoing manner.See also Full clone.

 A type of network connection that allows you to connect your virtual machines to an external network when you have only one IP network address, and that address is used by the host computer. If you use NAT, your virtual machine does not have its own IP address on the external network. Instead, a separate private network is set up on the host computer. Your virtual machine gets an address on that network from the VMware virtual DHCP server. The VMware NAT device passes network data between one or more virtual machines and the external network. It identifies incoming data packets intended for each virtual machine and sends them to the correct destination.

New Virtual Machine wizard

 A point-and-click interface for convenient, easy creation of a virtual machine configuration. It creates files that define the virtual machine, including a virtual machine configuration file and (optionally) a virtual disk or raw disk file. See also Virtual machine settings editor.

Parent

 The source or "original" virtual machine from which you take a snapshot or make a clone. A full clone has no continued link to its parent, but a linked clone and a snapshot each depend on the parent in an ongoing manner. If you delete the parent virtual machine, any linked clone or snapshot becomes permanently disabled. To prevent deletion, you can create a template virtual machine.See also Full clone, Linked clone, Snapshot, and Template.

Quick switch mode

 A display mode in which the virtual machine's display fills most of the screen. In this mode, tabs at the top of the screen allow you to switch quickly from one running virtual machine to another.See also Full screen mode.

Raw disk

 A hard disk in a virtual machine that is mapped to a physical disk drive or a partition of a drive on the host machine. A virtual machine's disk can be stored as a file on the host file system (see Virtual disk) or on a local hard disk. When a virtual machine is configured to use a raw disk, VMware Workstation directly accesses the local disk or partition as a raw device (not as a file on a file system). It is possible to boot a previously installed operating system on an existing partition within a virtual machine environment. The only limitation is that the existing partition must reside on a local IDE or SCSI drive. See also Virtual disk.

Resume

 Return a virtual machine to operation from its suspended state. When you resume a suspended virtual machine, all applications are in the same state they were when the virtual machine was suspended.See also Suspend.

Revert to snapshot

 Reverting to a snapshot restores the status of the active virtual machine to its immediate parent snapshot. This parent is represented in the snapshot manager by the snapshot appearing to the immediate left of the You Are Here icon. See also Go to Snapshot, Snapshot manager, and You Are Here (icon).

Shared folder

 A shared folder is a folder on the host computer  or on a network drive accessible from the host computer  that can be used by both the host computer and one or more virtual machines. It provides a simple way of sharing files between host and guest or among virtual machines. In a Windows virtual machine, shared folders appear as folders on a designated drive letter. In a Linux virtual machine, shared folders appear under a specified mount point.

Snapshot

 A snapshot preserves the virtual machine just as it was when you took that snapshot  the state of the data on all the virtual machine's disks and whether the virtual machine was powered on, powered off or suspended. VMware Workstation lets you take snapshots of a virtual machine at any time and revert to that snapshot at any time. You can take a snapshot when a virtual machine is powered on, powered off or suspended. Configurations are available to exclude a disk from snapshots.

Snapshot manager

 The snapshot manager is a window that allows you to take actions on any of the snapshots associated with the selected virtual machine.See also Snapshot.

Suspend

 Saves the current state of a running virtual machine. To return a suspended virtual machine to operation, you use the resume feature.See also Resume.

Teams

 A group of virtual machines that are configured to operate as one object. You can power on, power off, and suspend a team with one command. You can configure a team to communicate independently of any other virtual or real network by setting up a LAN segment.See also LAN segment, Virtual Network.

Template

 A virtual machine that cannot be deleted or added to a team. Setting a virtual machine as a template protects any linked clone or snapshots from being disabled inadvertently.See also Linked clone, Parent, and Snapshot.

Virtual disk

 A file or set of files appearing as a physical disk drive to a guest operating system. These files can be on the host machine or on a remote file system. When you configure a virtual machine with a virtual disk, you can install a new operating system into the disk file without the need to repartition a physical disk or reboot the host. See also Raw disk.

Virtual machine

 A virtualized x86 PC environment in which a guest operating system and associated application software can run. Multiple virtual machines can operate on the same host machine concurrently.

Virtual machine configuration

 The specification of what virtual devices (disks, memory size, etc.) are present in a virtual machine and how they are mapped to host files and devices.

Virtual machine configuration file

 A file containing a virtual machine configuration. It is created by the New Virtual Machine Wizard. It is used by VMware Workstation to identify and run a specific virtual machine.

Virtual machine settings editor

 A point-and-click editor used to view and modify the settings of a virtual machine after its initial creation.See also New Virtual Machine wizard.

Virtual Network

 A network between virtual machines with no dependence on real-world hardware connections. For example, you can create a virtual network between a virtual machine and a host that has no external network connections. You can also create a LAN segment for communications between virtual machines on a teamSee also LAN segment, and Teams.

Virtual Network Editor

 A point-and-click editor used to view and modify the networking settings for the virtual networks created by VMware Workstation.

VMware Tools

 A suite of utilities and drivers that enhances the performance and functionality of your guest operating system. Key features of VMware Tools include some or all of the following, depending on your guest operating system: an SVGA driver, a mouse driver, the VMware Tools control panel and support for such features as shared folders, drag and drop in Windows guests, shrinking virtual disks, time synchronization with the host, VMware Tools scripts, and connecting and disconnecting devices while the virtual machine is running.

You Are Here (icon)

 A special icon appearing in the snapshot manager that indicates the current status of the active virtual machine. This can be important when deciding whether to revert to, or go to a snapshot.See also Snapshot manager, Revert to snapshot, and Go to Snapshot.